The village with a ‘Dog Whipper’!

Alex Ledger looks at some of the quirkier events in the history of Youlgrave… and the role of the village’s ‘Dog Whipper”!

A WONDERFUL compendium of the lives of past parishioners survive in Youlgrave church registers. Various entries link to many ‘unofficial’ comments, such as descriptions of the dreadful ‘Great Snow’ of 1614/15 when the clerk recorded ‘the greatest snow which ever fell upon the earth within man’s memorye … very deep, so that passengers, both horse and foot, passed over gates, hedges and walles. It fell at ten severall tymes, to the great admiration and feare of all the land, for it came from the four pts of the world so that all c’ntryes were full, yea the south p’te as well as these mountaynes.’…